My grossly swollen tongue.....

I would like to die knowing that I have experienced everything I possibly
can, good and bad. I want to die knowing that my life was worth living and
that I did everything I could to make it as rich and enjoyable as possible.

Why pierce my tongue? Why pierce anything? Everybody has their own
reasons, my reason is simple, my body is my canvas, I can decorate it anyway
I see fit. I am the only one who is really affected by what I do to it and
I am the only one who can decide what should go on my canvas. I can modify
my canvas to truly suit my personality. I do nothing to be fashionable, I
do what suits me.

Two weeks ago I had my tongue pierced (I choose not to mention the name of
the studio as I am sure that my problems were not the fault of the very
professional piercer and I do not want to give them bad publicity).

As I said, the piercer was very professional, I have thoroughly read BME so
I knew exactly what to look for and I was satisfied with what I saw. He
showed me the auto claver and the tests which are carried out to check that
it is working and they were fine. He changed his gloves about three times in
total, I was satisfied. He had me rinse with listerine for a minute, told
me what he was doing, marked a spot on my tongue which I approved, clamped
my tongue and stuck the needle through.

I was expecting far less pain then I got, I have plenty of other piercings
which were supposed to hurt and didn't so I was expecting the tongue to be
less painful than them, but it wasn't. I wasn't too worried about the pain
because it was worthwhile pain. I did not bleed and I did not drool at all.

The piercer gave me a sheet with aftercare instructions, told me to get some
listerine, I paid him and was off. I got some ice from McDonalds and went
home.

It didn't start to swell until that night, I sucked ice for two days before
I decided that it probably wasn't doing any good any more.

The morning after I had it done I could not reach my front teeth with my
tongue, I couldn't open my mouth wide enough to see that the top ball was
getting sucked inside my extremely swollen tongue. I don't really know why
this was happening, I followed the aftercare instructions religiously, used
diluted listerine all the time, I did not bite my tongue once, and needless
to say I did not participate in any activities which would put me at risk of
any infection.

Talking was never a problem, although my tongue was very swollen and sore I
still managed to sound completely normal the whole time. Eating was fine,
slow but fine, no one seemed to notice at home. (I am 22 years old so it
wouldn't have mattered if they did notice).

Two weeks later my poor tongue is still completely swollen, I have found a
way of stopping the balls getting sucked inside, I cut a small circle out of
an ice cream container lid, cut a small hole in the center and cut a slit to
the middle. I slipped it around the ball. It spreads the pressure over a
larger area. This has reduced the size of the hole that the ball created
and it is looking better. At this point I would like to say that that I do
not recommend this over going back to your piercer, it may have worked for
me but I only did it as a last resort as I was sure that I would lose the
piercing if I did not do it. Nothing beats the advice that a professional
piercer can give you. I didn't go back to the piercer because I live about
40 minutes away from it. I will go back to get a shorter bar when the
swelling has gone down, (although that seems like it will never happen at
this stage.)

My whole tongue piercing experience has been far from pleasant but this has
not deterred me from getting more piercings but if I ever get my tongue done
for a second time( which I had planned to do) I will get two VERY long bars
to start with this time.

To anyone who is contemplating getting their tongue pierced I say do it if
it is right for you. Don't do it because it is fashionable or because you
want to look cool, you're wasting your time and money.

Thank you for reading my story.

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submitted by: Anonymouson: 15 May 1999in
Tongue Piercing

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